Author Archives: April

Black Roses

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Everywhere you go you see the colors of fall, lots of brunt oranges, warm yellows, and firey reds. Which also means that Halloween is on it’s way! One of my favorite holidays by far, I’m really looking forward to getting the casa all decked out for the goulish holiday. Here are some great decorating projects I found courtesy of Country Living.

These pumpkins are darling aren’t they? They seem pretty simple to do too. Even someone like me who is all thumbs when it comes to crafts.

This little ghost is spooky, I’ve got enough mirrors around to make a whole family of scary ghosts.

What’s more spooky than black roses? A black wreath of course!

Well, I’m off to buy some spooky supplies to try these crafts out for myself!

Cookies..nom..nom

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Recently, the sweetie was being his normal sweet self, and baked some of his famous dark chocolate chip cookies.

And of course I ate my cookies without any inhibitions, because come on, a girls got to have her dark chocolate chip pecan cookies.

Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom….

Here’s the recipe he use’s, which he has committed to memory, how impressive is that?! The sweetie originally found the recipe on the Joy of Baking website:

Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe:

1 cup (2 sticks) (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar

3/4 cup (160 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups (295 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups (270 grams) semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup (100 grams) walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped (optional)

And here is his version:

J’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

3-3/4c flour,

3/4 sugar,

1-1/4c brown sugar,

1c butter,

1-1/4 tsp baking powder,

1tsp baking soda,

2 eggs,

1tsp vanilla,

chocolate chips

Dash of Salt
Enjoy with a glass of milk!!

Bright Chairs

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With the onset of bronchitis, that’s lasted a month and still going strong (!), I really haven’t gotten a lot of my projects done, or started for that matter! But I have been able to surf the web for some pretty design trends. Currently, I’m really liking bright furniture.  Especially in rooms with a dark wall color, or more of a subdued tone. The cheerful tone of these furniture pieces is like a bright lipstick when you don’t have time to paint the rest of your face, they add that extra somethin’. Like these photos that I found on Opal Never Shouts.

Or these lovlies that I found on Target.com

Brightly colored furniture I love, but alas, I also have an affection for brightly colored walls as well, it might be too much include both. I can’t have my guests walking in and instantly have a headache with all the color.

Naked Door No More!

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Well, it FINALLY happened folks! This blogger finally got off her blogging bootie and COMPLETED a project! * Enter Rocky theme song here*

Yep, that’s right, I finally completed a home improvement project! Are you ready to hear about what it was?? I know your itching to find out! Drum roll please….I painted my front door red!!

It’s not a big project, but darn it, it’s something, and it’s done! Often times, I will post during shots, the occasional before shot, but never have I posted a completely completed AFTER!!  Yup, this is the very first After photo to appear on The Yellow Casa. So, here she is:

I used Behr Cherry Tart, it took two coats on both sides. Yep, I painted the inside red too. It was slightly nerve racking, deciding whether to paint both sides red, but ultimately I’m glad I took the plunge.

Sorry about the dark photo, the lighting in my living room isn’t quite the same with the door is closed.  And I was just too exited to wait for the hardware to be put back in place, I had to take a photo! I’ll make another this evening with the hardware in place. That way you’ll get to see a final product from the inside!

As mentioned above, I used Behr’s Cherry Tart. It was a close race between Cherry Tart and Bijor(?) Red.

The winner is on the left and the not so lucky contestant is on the right. As you can see, the latter had more orange in it. Both colors are pretty, but the red tone works better with the “tone” of our casa. As always, I forgot to take a before picture, but from the picture above you can see that my door was naked wood. It didn’t have any type of finishing, so hopefully my Cherry Tart paint will help her have some modesty!!

And just for giggles, here is our security door:

I’ve considered removing this door for better curb appeal, but it does keep the bad people out, and it brings in a lot of light. Since my red door makes me so happy, maybe I will paint this door red too.

Or I could stop while I’m ahead and paint the town red instead! Ha, don’t you love rhymes!

Signed,

April (the red door loving feign)

HGTV, Tears and Drama

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The past couple of weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to spend many hours at home with my beloved HGTV.

There is a bright side to harboring the biggest, worstest (yes, I am making that a word) monster bug I’ve had to deal with in a long time. Over two weeks now people, who knew bronchitis could hang on for that long!!

Anywho, enough of my whining, like I was saying, during my time at home battling the monster bug of the year, I had great fun watching hours upon hours of HGTV. I got to rediscover old favorites like “Design on a Dime” and “Designed to Sell”.

But also discovered some new shows, that were surprisingly interesting, like “Color Splash” and “Holmes on Homes”, those gentleman could come fix up my casa anytime!

(Come on, you know those overalls are sexy)

But I digress, during my hours upon hours of HGTV viewing, I found that there seems to be a trend that even design networks are falling into, reality competition. Even the great Debbie Travis has joined the band wagon with her “From the Ground Up” series.

Since the Big Giant Head behind the HGTV network seems to be releasing more and more of these “reality competition” shows,  I seem to be one of the few viewers who really doesn’t care if the token Emotional Girl beats out the token Mean Girl. I noticed one of my new favorites, Mike Holmes, is partaking in the newest addition, “Handy All-Star”. I will probably watch it, only because I like Mike Holmes(again, it’s got to be those overalls!), and I may learn some handy tricks. But the competition part of it, I could do without. I miss the old HGTV, that gave it’s viewers more Home and Garden and less Tears and Drama.

Coolio

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I’ve got some home related posts in the works I promise. With the onset of a particularly bad case of bronchitis and the “lazies” ,projects around the casa have been few and far between. But you have my girl scouts honor that soon there will be some actual projects that have been completed by an occupant of the yellow casa. And I don’t mean any of Annie dog’s projects.

Yes, there has been a lot of this going on with the non-dog occupants of the yellow casa. But honest, I’m working on small home improvement projects that I’m just itching to post about.

Speaking of home improvement projects, our cooler has been making very loud squealing noises. So, the sweetie climbed a ladder to see what was the matter. Upon further inspection he noticed that our cooler has a giant hole in it and happens to be leaking water on our roof. So, we are on the look out for a new cooler. For those of you who are not from an arid climate I will provide you with a definition I found on wiki:

“An evaporative cooler (also swamp cooler, desert cooler, and wet air cooler) is a device that cools air through the simple evaporation of water. Evaporative cooling differs from air conditioning by refrigeration and absorptive refrigeration, which use vapor-compression or absorption refrigeration cycles.”

Here’s a picture of the casa, you can see the very top of a large metal box on the roof. That’s our cooler that needs to be replaced because of the large leaking hole and loud squealing noises coming from said metal box.

Off to Home Depot we go! Hopefully, I can squeeze in some paint sample shopping while we are there!

On a dark and stormy night…

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On a dark and stormy night a girl, her sweetheart and their dog went on a drive and took some blurry pictures. Actually, it was a dark and stormy night, just right for a dramatic drive around town. Annie who is dog loves car rides especially when there are storms a brewin’.

Even sweetie likes our little evening drives, or in this case an evening park. New Mexico rarely gets rain, but when it happens everyone seems to freeze on the road, as New Mexicans seem to have difficulty operating a vehicle on a slightly damp road. But give us strong winds and icey roads and we’re good to go.

Here’s some blurry shots of the sky:

I had to include sweetie enjoying his evening drive. Just as Annie who is dog enjoys a good evening outing, we do as well.

But alas, the clouds have parted to reveal our beautiful New Mexico sky once again. Hopefully soon, we’ll have another dramatic stormy night to capture, with less fuzzy pictures.

My Sleeping Beauties…

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It’s a sleepy Sunday today, after church and after lunch everyone just seems to be a bit drowsy. So, we all lay down for a little nap. Even Annie dog…

It should be noted that little dogs do not enjoy their naps being interrupted for photo ops. Shortly after this photo was taken Annie dog gave me a very cold and icy stare and promptly turned her back to me. I am officially being shunned by my dog. But I am sure the shunning will end as soon as I give her a doggie cookie.

Even my sweetie is taking a nap, I have pictures of him dreaming away, but I fear the wrath of sweetie if I post those photos here. I’ll save them for blackmail later.

As for me I am lounging on the sofa watching copious amounts of HGTV, and fighting a bad bout of bronchitis. Believe me, being home all week and watching nearly non-stop HGTV has given me plenty of time to gather inspiration for my little casa. Let’s see if anything comes of it…

While I was sleeping away yesterday morning, the sweetie and Annie Dog went on estate sale-ing adventures. Here are some of the treasures they came home with:

A 1960’s version of Monopoly. Apparently, Monopoly was not a board game in the 60’s, it was Real Estate Trading Game Equipment. But it was only $3 and seems to have come with all of the pieces.

And my personal favorite, a WWII version of The Joy of Cooking. It is copywrited 1943! And was picked up for a $1! Double score!

There are no illustrations included, but the instructions are pretty well explained. The sweetie and I noticed that some of the wording was slightly different from what is used today. For instance, for one recipe, it is suggested that you use one pony of flour. And you wouldn’t use crushed pecans, you would use crushed pecan meat. It’s an interesting find, and makes a great addition to our vintage and antique cookbook collection.

Well, I’m off for now to take a nap and to dream sweet dreams of a house that cleans and remodels itself. Happy Sunday everyone!

What do flowers pray for?

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This evening I noticed my sunflowers have come to a point where their heads are too heavy for their little stems to hold them up, so they droop. But to me, they look like they are enjoying a prayerful moment with heads bowed. It got me to wondering what flowers pray for. Do they pray for the same things that we pray for? Do they pray for help in those dark times? Do they praise God in those bright and happy times? Or do they pray for more flower appropriate things like rain and less bugs? Do they hope for the day that they will be plucked and used in a beautiful arrangement? Much like we hope that God will pluck us and use us in one of His arrangements.  Or  do they find hope and peace like we  find in the Lord, when our heads seem too heavy for our stems to hold us up.

This reminds me of a verse that was a favorite of my fathers it’s got nothing to do with flowers specifically, but I find it appropriate for times when it seems that we cannot hold our heavy sunflower heads up by ourselves:

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

Isaiah 40:31

So, just like these little sunflowers wait upon the Lord and show complete and utter dependence on God, we should do the same when life seems to make our heads too heavy for our little stems to hold us up.

So many kitchens…

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I haven’t really been doing a lot of doing recently. Actually, I’ve been doing a lot of planning and a lot of shopping, but again, not a lot of doing. So, there really aren’t any dramatic afters to show off, or any durings for that mater. But today I thought I would share some pretty pictures that inspire. I find lots of inspirational images, but rarely do they cause me to get off my blogging bootie and do. Hopefully, these will do the trick, here are some very attractive kitchens:

I LOVE yellow, therefore, I LOVE this kitchen! I really like the small appliance garage in the corner. What a great use of space.

The island in this kitchen is GINORMOUS! But, can’t you imagine preparing Thanksgiving dinner in here??

I usually don’t like galley kitchens, but this one is growing on me. It’s done up so pretty, I love love LOVE the high ceilings and lighting.

Aren’t the blue cabinets just lovely? And I don’t mean “just lovely”, in the sense that my grandmother would  say “Oh, bless her little heart!”. I mean they really are lovely. I love the hardware they used for the pulls as well.

Well, I’m off to see what projects I can mark of my to-do list!

All images courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens.